The bomb has been dropped on GTA Online. Whether or not that is a good thing depends on which end of said explosive you have to be on. See, Rockstar has a way of adding new and extravagant items into the game. One of these items is the orbital cannon. It is big, bad, and incredibly expensive. Naturally, it is also being abused like crazy by people who are rich enough or savvy enough to acquire and exploit it.

Here’s how an orbital cannon works. People pay $500,000 in-game cash to shoot the standard version of it once, which will send off a shot that will kill multiple people and cars even if they are inside of a store or trying to hide. (Only people in apartments and bunkers are safe.) Should people pay $750,000, they can lock on to a single player anywhere on the map. The person or people being targeted get no warning about the impending attack. It just hits out of nowhere. Then, there is supposed to be a 48-minute cooldown.

In theory, it sounds like a really cool weapon that could have practical uses, such as if you are targeting a large group or going after someone in a substantial vehicle like a Mobile Operations Center, the orbital cannon is a good counter to such formidable foes. But this is GTA Online, so of course people aren’t using the weapon for logical means. It is more often than not being used to troll and make the lives of other users miserable. Something that can be used like this to destroy without warning is devastating the community, and Rockstar needs to do something about it. After all, when someone fires an orbital cannon at another person, and that person has goods they earned and are trying to sell, the person who gets hit loses everything.

See, people have found a way to abuse the orbital cannon. Type “non-stop orbital strikes” or “unlimited orbital cannon” into Google and you’ll see multiple videos telling you of exploits and glitches that are stable and allow you to rapidly fire the weapon without that substantial delay. And of course the price is no deterrence, as GTA Online is filled with people who are either willing to spend real cash on the game to acquire money or cheat to hack in-game cash into their accounts. Anyone trying to play legitimately is going to suffer, never knowing when an orbital strike could be called down. Rockstar basically added a kill switch to the game that any rich person or cheater can use whenever they feel like it.

So, what can Rockstar do to fix this? Well, the company could adjust how the orbital cannon works. Increasing the cost would not help, but increasing the time between strikes and removing any exploits that shorten that period would make a big difference. Because we already know money is no object in GTA Online. Forcing people to be patient is the only alternative.

Rockstar could also put some restrictions and warnings on the orbital cannon that can not be avoided with exploits. Perhaps limit the times of day when it can be used. Put an alert in place that lets folks know an orbital strike is happening. This should be possible with the $750,000 upgraded option, since it is homing in on a specific user. Turn places like stores into safe spaces, so if someone knows something is happening, they do not have to retreat to an apartment or bunker.

The orbital cannon is not well implemented in GTA Online. There are way too many issues with it that are causing problems for people who are just trying to enjoy the game. People who are willing to buy or cheat their way will have no qualms ruining the experience for others. Rockstar owes it to their fans to fix this weapon and make it a little less devastating.